Young Professionals Group Leadership Committee
Cory Johnson graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead in 2009 where he majored in accounting. His is currently a business development director at Salo. Cory was a YPG captain in 2009 and served as our 2015 Leadership Committee Chair. He enjoys water-skiing, camping and biking. Cory is also involved in softball, football and hockey leagues throughout the year
which keeps him busy!
Dream Vacation: Banff, Canada
Tiffany Bunker, Lurie LLP
Jolene works as a Personal Tax Manager at Redpath and Company, Ltd. She loves being able to use her skills in her job to help people, whether it's helping clients understand their taxes, help their plan for the future, or helping staff learn all the complexities in tax returns. The best piece of advice she's received regarding her professional life was to get actively involved in groups by taking on leadership roles in professional societies. She encourages other young professionals to do the same, in order to build lasting connections with others. In her free time she enjoys hanging out by the pool in the summer and spending time with family and friends.
Who she'd like to meet: Zig Ziglar. I loved to hear about how he was about to create such a great personal brand that it continued after he passed away.
Jeff works in audit services at U.S. Bancorp. He enjoys the ever-changing landscape of the subject matter that he focuses on and enjoys assisting senior management to meet their business objectives. Every day at work is different for him and that’s what makes it interesting. During his free
time, he and his wife visit various breweries around the Twin Cities with their chocolate lab/pitbull mix and are advocates for pitbulls and foster pitbull mixes to help change the stereotypes associated with the breed. Jeff, who is an avid Vikings fan, would love to meet Bud Grant.
His advice to young professionals is to meet and network with individuals. It’s not who you know but who knows you that can be the determining factor when it comes to finding that perfect job.
The best piece of
advice he’s ever received: “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the
other people.”
Preston is a Senior Audit Associate at Grant Thornton. He loves his work because he has great co-workers and no two days are the same. Whether he’s out on an audit in the office or on site, new opportunities are constantly presenting themselves to him. This allows him to tackle new
challenges, problems and answers; but also lets him gain more knowledge and experience to continue developing in his career. In his free time, you’ll find him outdoors doing something active: running, biking, kayaking, or playing some sort of sport. When it’s time to get things done and focus on the task at hand
you might catch him listening to Disney soundtracks.
His advice for young professionals is that they should continue to try new things, even if they’ve never done it before. Someone will always be around to help, and it’s a great learning opportunity that shows that you are committed to developing yourself and helping out in any way possible.
People he’d like to meet: Frank Abagnale, the real life “Catch me if you Can” guy, and Emma Watson. Preston thinks both of these people have fascinating stories and he’d love the opportunity to sit down and speak with them about their lives. Plus, he’s a Harry Potter super-fan.
Luke Selvig, Boyum and Barenscheer
2017 Leadership Committee Chair
Luke is a senior accountant at Boyum and Barenscheer. He loves his work because he has great coworkers and enjoys spending time with them in and out of the office. He was told by a football coach in high school that “you have two things that you can always control, your Attitude and your Effort.”
That’s stuck with him and he remembers it often. There will be times when it seems like nothing can go right, but he believes that if we can remember these two words it makes everything much easier because we always have some control.
Luke spends his free time hunting, fishing and golfing. If he could choose to have dinner with anyone living or dead he’d like to meet Benjamin Franklin because he was a genius and might have really great stories. His advice for other young professionals: “You don’t need to know what you’re
going to do for your entire career from day one. Just work hard and enjoy the ride.”
Little known fact: Luke lived in the Netherlands for nearly six months, he’s since caught the travel bug and enjoys planning his next adventure.
Join the committee
Have some great ideas for the Young Professionals Group? Please fill out a
volunteer application.